Just last week I was at Café Sierra Negra for dinner and Pam walked up to us and we said hi. She mentioned that she couldn’t open the pictures I sent her in an email.

I didn’t send her an email. I did, however, recognize the scam. She received an email with my name, but it was not from me. Unfortunately, that’s a fairly common phishing scam where another person’s name is in the From address of an email. Generally, if you click on the email address it will show the full description, and the actual email doesn’t match the name. It’s called spoofing, the same way a familiar name or phone number can come up in caller-id, but it isn’t a call from that person.

I get those pretty regularly, but I just delete them. The person hasn’t been hacked, so there’s nothing they can do because they really don’t have anything to do with it. Lately, my name has been used in this spoofing email as someone else told me the same thing happened to them a few weeks ago.

These emails are very short, usually saying something like, Hey, do you recognize the person in this picture? And then there’s a link to click on. DON’T click the link. I don’t know what it does but it can’t be good.
If you get an email with a link in it, Do Not Click On It, unless:

• You are expecting this email.
• The email has personal references in it so you know it’s legit.
• You are looking for trouble.

If you do click on it, maybe nothing will happen. If so, then good. On the other hand, you might want to run your anti-virus program, and your anti malware program, just to be safe.
 
Carol get’s a different kind of thing via FaceBook Messenger. These can happen when a person’s FBM account HAS been hacked, which isn’t all that uncommon. If it seem suspicious, i.e. this person doesn’t normally message you with links, etc, then delete the message and let the person know, via something other than FBM, that their account may be hacked.  

Note from Carol: Facebook Messenger tends to get hacked.  Don't use it to send or receive links.

Rule of thumb is, don’t click on a link you aren’t expecting. Don’t click on a link from a stranger. Don’t click on a link from “UPS” when they say your package was held up and if you don’t click the link and give them all your personal info they will send the package away.

I don’t usually write about tech tips that are energy efficient, though I do try and keep my old tech (and yours) going for a long time. I hate waste, and I like to try and keep devices going for at least a few years longer. I stumbled across a site from India that had 5 good suggestions. Read about them HERE.  
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Speaking of which, if you are ready to upgrade, consider giving me your old computer, tablet, phone, whatever. I’ll clean it up, possibly upgrade a thing or two, and pass it along.

I never watched MacGyver, but I know, and LOVE, the concept. You know, you’re trapped in box, buried 10’ in the ground, and somehow, you make a tunnel digging machine and a ladder out of your socks, pocket lint and a ball point pen.

Here’s a video on some cool stuff that is supposedly possible. Some make sense, like the magnet to find screws in the wall, or tape on the back of sandpaper. The Bic lighter seems a bit iffy, but I’d like to try it. Making a soldering pen from a pencil and a 5v USB cable? That seems a stretch.  It's a fun video, and there are a million more. 
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Make a backup. Computers fail. All computers fail eventually. Sometimes, just by still working, they fail through no fault of their own. The world simply left them behind. I know it’s tempting to keep a computer because it still turns on, it still opens a browser, and your documents and pictures are on it. While that’s all great, eventually, that browser won’t connect to anything you want, the internet will act flakey, and you will need to move those documents and pictures to a new computer.

Make sure you are backed up, meaning, the data is in two different places, in case one fails. Unfortunately, software doesn’t always move to a new machine. Be prepared for that. There may be a free or inexpensive alternative to your favorite program, or maybe not. Usually there is a more expensive alternative. Sorry. That’s capitalism I suppose.

I don’t trust anti-virus programs. I go with Windows Defender, as it’s built in and does a credible job without slowing the PC down horribly, as so many anti-virus programs do. I purchase a 5 pack of Malwarebytes, which doesn’t seem to slow my computer down, but will stop malware and block malicious websites. My humble opinion only.

Macs need protection too. I use MalwareBytes on my Mac as well. It seems that Apple builds anti-virus software into their Macs, just as Windows does. Read about that HERE. 

I have a borrowed Starlink satellite dish I setup today. It’s running about 150Mbs down and 9Mbs up. The upload speed is not as good compared to fiber, but it is comparable to my current Windstream DSL. The download speed kicks butt compared to Windstream, so that’s fantastic. Someday I expect to have fiber to my home but in the meantime, I love this Starlink. I do wonder when they will ship mine. We are closing in on 2 months ago that it was ordered.

Sometimes your computer screen is black and nothing can be done. If it’s a PC, then I’d bet a nickel it’s doing a Windows update. I hate it when it does that. Let it run. If, after a couple hours nothing has changed, then it’s likely something else. You can try to do a ctl+alt+del. Select Task manager. See what’s running under processes and cancel it. Or, press and hold the power button till the computer shuts off. When it restarts it may actually show you what it’s doing, or it may do a black screen again, or worse yet, it may give you a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). BSOD is bad, but then, so is a black screen for 2 hours.

Finally, that screaming message on your screen telling you something dire has happened and to call this number. DON’T. If you can, do a ctl+alt+del. Select Task manager. Under processes, right click on the browser and End Task. If you can’t do all that, press and hold the power button till the computer shuts off. When you turn it back on, the message should be gone. When you open your browser, DO NOT SELECT TO ‘RESTORE PAGES’. One of them is evil.

Technology is pretty cool. It can also drive you nuts. If it starts getting tense, go outside and enjoy the view. It’s crazy beautiful here.